Buying a waste hauling company in South Florida
South Florida has 99 established waste hauling companies by our count: companies in business at least 15 years that still file with the state every year and aren't part of a larger group. Of those, 59% have been in business 20 years or more. Most will never be listed for sale, and many of their owners have never been asked.
What it takes to own one
Waste hauling companies in South Florida come in every size. Here's what owning one could look like at three levels, from a solid company to one of the leaders, with a small business loan covering most of the price.
- Earns about
- $137,000 a year
- Price about
- $486,000
- Your cash
- $68,000
- Could pay you
- up to $49,000 a year
- Earns about
- $577,000 a year
- Price about
- $2 million
- Your cash
- $287,000
- Could pay you
- up to $208,000 a year
- Earns about
- $1 million a year
- Price about
- $3.6 million
- Your cash
- $506,000
- Could pay you
- up to $366,000 a year
Earnings are owner earnings: profit plus what the owner pays themselves, before loan payments and taxes. They and the prices are our estimates from public records, not the owners' figures, and we value companies like these at about 3.5 times a year's owner earnings. Your cash covers the down payment and closing costs, and what the business could pay you is what's left after the loan payments and the cushion lenders require. The more cash you bring, the further up you can go.
Age, size and location
Revenue is our estimate from public records, grouped into wide ranges.
| In business | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under 20 years | 41 |
| 20 to 29 years | 41 |
| 30 to 39 years | 9 |
| 40 years or more | 8 |
| Estimated yearly revenue | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under $1M | 18 |
| $1M to $2M | 3 |
| $2M to $4M | 3 |
| $4M to $8M | 5 |
| County | Companies |
|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | 48 |
| Broward | 27 |
| Palm Beach | 16 |
| Monroe | 8 |
| Town | Companies |
|---|---|
| Miami | 31 |
| Boca Raton | 5 |
| Deerfield Beach | 5 |
| Key Largo | 5 |
What the best waste hauling companies have in common
- Recurring commercial accounts on dense routes, with service agreements that renew automatically.
- A broad base of roll-off customers, not one or two large contractors whose projects will end.
- A young or well-maintained fleet with maintenance records. A truck off the road for a week means missed pickups and unhappy customers.
- Reliable access to disposal at reasonable prices, perhaps including its own transfer or processing site.
- Franchises or permits in the cities and counties where it works, with years left to run.
- Experienced drivers who stay, and a clean safety record.
- Containers in good condition, counted and tracked.
- Routing and billing software that shows revenue per stop and per truck.
What to check before you buy
- Every franchise, license and permit: holder, area, term, fees, and conditions for transfer.
- Revenue by line (roll-off, commercial routes, residential contracts), and how much comes from the biggest customers.
- Disposal costs and agreements. Rising tipping fees can squeeze margins quickly.
- A fleet list with age, mileage, maintenance records and liens. Have a mechanic inspect the trucks.
- Container count and condition, and how many sit at customer sites.
- Driver records, accident history, insurance claims and the cost of auto liability coverage.
- Environmental issues at the yard: fuel, oil, wash water and any DEP enforcement.
- Contracts with cities or counties, and their renewal or rebid dates. Ask whether any local government plans an exclusive franchise or its own service. Before a city or county takes over a service a private hauler provides, state law requires a hearing, 3 years' notice and compensation, but not when it simply declines to renew a contract (section 403.70605). Ask your attorney whether that protection covers a new exclusive franchise.
- Customer service agreements: length, automatic renewal, price increase terms, and whether they can be assigned.
Questions to ask the owner
- Which franchises and permits do you hold, and when do they come up for renewal?
- How does your revenue split between roll-off, commercial routes and government contracts?
- Where do you dump, and what do you pay per ton?
- How old is your fleet, and what are you planning to replace?
- How long have your drivers been with you, and how do you hire new ones?
- What accidents and insurance claims have you had?
- Who are your biggest customers?
To learn what these companies do, which licenses they need and how ownership works, read our full guide to buying a waste hauling company in Florida.
Owning a company in South Florida
The local economy
South Florida covers Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties: Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, and the Florida Keys down to Key West. It's the state's largest metro area and its most international. PortMiami, Port Everglades and Miami International Airport tie the region to Latin America and the Caribbean, which supports a deep base of wholesalers, freight forwarders and logistics firms, many of them near the airport. Tourism and cruises, finance and wealth management, health care, real estate and construction carry much of the rest. Palm Beach County adds wealthy seasonal residents and, out west near Lake Okeechobee, sugarcane and vegetable farms. In the Keys, nearly everything turns on visitors, fishing and boating.
Companies that serve homes, condo buildings and other businesses do well here: the building trades, property services, insurance agencies, medical and dental practices, and professional firms.
What's different about owning a company here
Costs run high: commercial rent, wages and, above all, property and windstorm insurance. Price the insurance before you make an offer, not after. Miami-Dade and Broward make up the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, with stricter rules for roofs, windows and structures. That raises building costs, and it also gives steady work to the contractors who know those rules well.
Much of the workforce and many customers speak Spanish as well as English, and a company that works well in both languages has an edge. The winter season matters more in Palm Beach County and the Keys than in Miami. In the Keys, the cost of housing makes hiring and keeping staff one of the hardest parts of running a company. Ask any seller there how they find workers and where those workers live.